Customer Reviews

How We Got Here: The 70's: The Decade That Brought You Modern Life--For Better or Worse

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David Frum's new book is a masterpiece of historical, social, and economic analysis. Frum persuasively makes the case that the 1970s were far more influential than the 1960s in terms of impact upon the future of America. Frum obviously evaluates the 1970s from a very conservative point of view, but he is a not a new-jerk conservative who automatically condemns everything about the 1970s and nostagically longs for the 1950s. Frum contends that the social conventions and mindsets which prevailed between 1920 and 1970 constituted a unique period in American history, existing due to the demands of the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War. Therefore, change was inevitable. Nevertheless, much of the change that occurred in the 1970s was undesirable because of its devestating impact on our culture. Frum accentuates the negative changes, but towards the end of the book he discusses the rays of hope that emerged at the end of a dark decade - deregulation, tax revolt, etc. Frum ranges across a remarkably diverse group of subjects from fashion to environmentalism to inflation in concise, definitive essays. Frum so frequently overwhelms the reader with his mastery of detail and narrative that editorial elaboration is not even necessary; he has already made his case. His prose sparkles and dazzles with the best style of any contemporary political writer. The book was a real page-turner; I could not put it down. I stayed up to 1 A.M. three nights in a row to finish it.

This is the book for anyone who's ever asked, sardonically or not, "How could the nation ever elect Ronald Reagan president?"

Today, many people, young and old, talk about the Reagan years like they some sort of political anomaly. David Frum's excellent deconstruction of the 1970s displaces that notion.

But it's not just about how the depressing 1970s gave way to the go-go 1980s. Frum draws a clear line from the intellectual seeds that were sown in the 1950s and 60s, seeds that didn't bear fruit until the 70s, to the issues that influence public discourse and behavior today.

The crux of Frum's analysis is that the seventies were a decade where America lost its faith in the concept of the "beneficent organization." This disillusionment crossed the political and social spectrum. The values of organizational hierarchy, centralized planning, self-sacrifice for a common goal, social conformity for the sake of community strength-values that sustained the nation through the Depression, World War II and the explosive American economic growth of the 1950s, ceased to have meaning amid the failures of Vietnam, the scandals of Watergate, decline of U.S. industry and the alarming simultaneous growth in inflation and unemployment.

The 1970s particularly marked the limits of the "New Deal" tradition of economic planning that by then was gospel for both Republicans and Democrats. The energy crisis laid bare the ineffectiveness, if not destructiveness, of Nixon's wage-price controls and by extension any other attempt for government to manage markets. Ongoing union corruption, plus the decline of heavy industry and the rise of service-oriented business, marginalized organized labor. Rather than achieve the goal of desegregation, social experimentation such as mandated busing only led to vast white flight and only increased racial separation and the discrepancy in quality of education.

In Frum's analysis, the 1970s marked a major upheaval in how we viewed the individual in relation to social structures-be it government, employers, religious institutions or family. It was, in truth, the "Me Decade." Diversity became more important than unity, personal fulfillment became more important than family responsibility, and desires were redefined as rights.

Although Frum writes from a conservative point of view, he does not view all the achievements of the 70s as bad. He clearly does not advocate going back to earlier times when racism was tolerated, industries from banking to trucking were heavily regulated and gold ownership was illegal. But he does believe that in many cases, a lot of good values, especially individual responsibility, the willingness to defer gratification and the belief in concepts higher than one's self, were discredited wholesale with bad ones.

All in all, the book makes for a very good history lesson. Young people especially may be surprised to learn that less than 30 years ago, mainstream Democrats still viewed the Wall Street investor as a foe of the average wage earner. And far from being embraced by the Conservative Right, American churches were drawing fire for their support of communist activism in Latin America and unilateral nuclear disarmament.

Frum does a wonderfully insightful job of showing the thinking, events and policies that brought these dramatic shifts about.

This refreshing new book is less a history of the 1970's than an exploration of some of the forces in American society that came to a head in that "slum of a decade," such as the widespread loss of respect for government, runaway inflation, the abandonment of the South Vietnamese, the cult of the self and the corresponding decline of family and community, and race- and gender-based politics. I think it would have been better to leave "the 70's" out of the book's title, but I recognize that almost any book that purports to be about the 1970's will catch the attention of those of us who came of age in that weird and wonderful era.

Frum is an excellent writer, and he provides clear and concise overviews of subjects as complex as the Bretton Woods monetary system, national mental-health policy, the economics of oil and the development of busing as a remedy for school segregation. He pays relatively little attention to popular culture, which is probably a good thing, because most of it was awful. For a fun, intelligent look at the popular culture of the decade, check out Edelstein and McDonugh's lavishly illustrated "The Seventies: From Hot Pants to Hot Tubs," which unfortunately is now hard to find.

A central question of "How We Got Here" is whether America's confidence in the 1950's, which completely fell apart in the 1970's, was an anomaly rather than the norm. A related question is whether the events of the 1970's represent America's return to its "normal" state -- contentious, disparate and often violent -- or the beginning of a steady national decline from which we will never fully recover. Frum seems to believe that midcentury stability was the product of, as he calls it, "special circumstances," and that we shouldn't be overly worried about our country's future. I agree with him, but it's also hard to ignore the evidence of national decline that he presents so compellingly in this book.

Frum is at his best when examining the major public policy questions of the Seventies from, of course, his very conservative perspective. He has an especially good command of his material when he writes about Nixon's wage-and-price controls, the horrible conflict over court-ordered busing in Boston, and and oil shortages of the mid-70s.

Frum is also good on select cultural trends--such as the rise of pornography and the increasingly overt sexuality in more mainstream outlets (such as romance novels). He devotes much attention to the decline of mainline Protestant denominations and the striking rise of divorce statistics. In so doing, he makes a persuasive case that it was the Seventies, more than the Sixties, that really changed American society "for better or worse" (and there can be no doubt that Frum would say the latter).

Despite these promising comments on culture, there isn't anything like an attempt at an overview of American popular culture during this fascinating period. Frum has surprisingly little to say about movies or television, popular music (even disco), sports or any number of other significant barometers of the culture.

A writer as talented as Frum might have had some important (or at least amusing) insights about, say, Roots, All in the Family, Charlie's Angels, Jaws, Billy Jack, K.C. and the Sunshine Band, or dozens of other memorable pop culture events from the decade. But for the most part, other than the occasional reference to Studio 54, the Godfather movies, or the Village People, Frum leaves this area to other writers.

His polemical style occasionally goes over the top, notably in his discussion of gay liberation, where his visceral loathing for gay men becomes obvious. Frum trots out a few sensational anecdotes, involving the more extreme behavior in sex clubs, and leaves it at that, as if that small slice of commercialized subculture were the only part of the story worth telling. His discussion of affirmative action is so one-sided that it lacks credibility.

Predictably enough, some of the reviewers above are conservatives who are delighted with Frum's attacks on liberalism and cultural excesses in this book, as they love Frum's polemical pieces in The Weekly Standard. It's too bad that this is likely to be the book's primary appeal. It could have been much more.

I got the impression that Frum had a more ambitious plan for this book and ended up finishing it ahead of its time. There are so many things he doesn't address, and the quality of his analysis is so uneven. And the appalling number of typographical errors, incomplete sentences and other word-processor-related mistakes (and the apparent lack of proofreading or even spell-checking) suggests an accelerated publication schedule.

One doesn't have to agree with Frum's conservative ideology to enjoy his writing or perspective, as I have in his earlier books. And in places, this book sparkles. Frum began to write a major conservative interpretation of the 70s, and with regard to public policy issues he succeeded. It's too bad that he pulled up short of crafting a more complete and satisfying study of American society during the period.

Frum's book presents a compelling argument for his thesis that much of the societal change for which we assign credit/blame to the 60s actually occured in the 70s, and was a product of that decade's culture. He presents a complete--though by no means exhaustive--portrait of America's psyche during the 'Me' decade.

Frum writes in a very accessible, easygoing style, but his exploration of the 70s lacks any sense of nostalgia. (For instance, you'll read little of leisure suits, disco music, or Pet Rocks.) Rather, he presents a careful (but not really unbiased) analysis of how social institutions changed during the decade. He points out that much of our present distrust of government does not stem directly from Vietnam and Watergate (as it is usually assumed) but developed gradually throughout the years preceding them. He accurately diagnoses the causes and effects of the decline of "mainline" Protestantism in the 70s. Frum also points out how the sexual revolution happened not during the so-called "Summer of Love" but developed in the early 70s.

(I would *love* to see Frum take on the 80s, another greatly misunderstood decade.)

All in all, this book is fascinating and highly quotable. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about this strange and powerful period in American history--or anybody who's just looking for a good read.

But I've got one quibble, and it's a big one: the proofreading in this book is *atrocious*. I've never seen a book reach the market with more spelling and grammatical errors. Unfortunately, there are factual errors as well: Frum states that , during the winter of 1977-78, "[t]emperatures plunged to minus 100 in Minnesota." That's simply wrong, and it casts doubt on some of the other unsubstantiated statements Frum makes.

I don't think this is serious enough to discredit the entire book. Frum provides sources for many of his factual claims; this book would simply benefit from more thorough and careful editing. But read it anyway!

I am exceedingly grateful for this book. I'm 52 years old and came of age during the 70's. I was a child of my times. I was aware that things were changing, but never had any real idea of the true nature of these changes while they were happening. Like most of my peers, I never went further than the headlines. I accepted the interpretation of the others around me who were equally ignorant of the facts behind those headlines. Now I spend a great deal of my time trying to understand just why I have become so unhappy with what America has become. I liked some of the social changes I saw, but became quite disenchanted with the wanton destruction of all the institutions that I know are essential to a successful civilization. Marriage, religion, masculine and feminine ethics, law, respect for legitimate authority, families, education, morality......., the list goes on and on. All these things were smashed beyond recognition without the slightest thought about how they might be replaced. This book fills in the blanks. What was the real meaning of the Pentagon papers? Why were the Carter years such a failure of leadership? What part did the government play in the madness? What were the political facts behind Vietnam? These and many more questions are touched upon in easily readable form. The second from the last paragraph of the book sums up the general tone rather well:

"Americans are a people of anxious conscience, and they do not seem very pleased with themselves these days. They see corruption in office and their fellow-citizens apparently acquiescing in it; they see pervasive child-neglect, disrespect for legitimate authority, quotas in the workplace, gruesome crimes in the quietest towns, misspellings in the letters form their children's teachers, smut on the airwaves, the hardening misery of the poorest of the poor. They lack the vocabulary to express their misgivings. How can one judge if one has been taught all one's life that it is wicked to be judgmental? But rendering the misgivings inarticulate does not make them go away. So let's be articulate. It is not true that things in general were better half a century ago. Things in many respects were worse----more militaristic, less innovative, more statist, less tolerant, more unionized, less humane, more prejudiced. Nostalgia for the past would be misplaced, and even if it were not, nostalgia is the weakest and most useless of emotions, the narcotic of the defeated and the helpless. But if things in general were not better, some things in particular were. It was better when people showed more loyalty to family and country, better when they read more and talked about themselves less, better when they restrained their sexuality, better when professors and curators were unafraid to uphold high intellectual standards, better when immigrants were expected to Americanize promptly, better when not every sorrow begat a lawsuit."

This is a brilliant book. Mr. Frum has written about the 1970s in a style that should be the model for all future historians. All works on a historical time period should take Mr. Frum's lead in combining politics, pop culture, values, and yes, humor into a single work. Frum's thesis - that the origin of what we call the "modern world" came from the 1970s - is proved beyond a doubt. It was a time, you could say, when 1960s political values came into our backyards. Freedom marches in Selma became forced busing in Boston. Flower children became porn stars in our living rooms. Of course, this condition was accompanied by a violent backlash from conservatives. The meeting of these two cultures naturally led to war. In the courts. In the schoolboards. In our government. In most cases, liberal values won out. Where liberalism wasn't as successful was in the economic sphere, where inflation discredited government planning and regulation almost as badly as the Great Depression discredited laissez-faire in the 1930s. The post-war political consensus on the economy and social values ruptured along several faults and the consequences of that split affect us to this present day. Frum analyzes this condition with candor and facts. From Vietnam to Watergate, from blue jeans to disco, from divorce to busing, from New Age cults to Arab sheiks, you will not find a better read on the 1970s than in the pages of this book.

David Frum writes an entertaining book with loads of mental images we older folk can longingly recall. I personally thought the sexual revolution in the early 70's was fabulous. In any event, it would have been interesting if Frum had contrasted Rythym and blues lyrics from the 50' thru the 90's with the 70's being the conduit. Listen to the 50's tune "One Mint Julep" and its message of personal responsibily and honor and fast forward to Ice Tea, Puff Daddy and Eminem. The point is that the 70's were transitional as Frum avers. And, why the 70'?

Recall that the Democrats and Republicans, pre-1965, were both anti-communist, pro-family values, pro-America, and conservative on economic values. The break in the 60's occurred when the Democratic party began to fractionate and fall under the control of Left leaning political theorists. This can be traced to the social rights legislation passed under the 1964-1968 Johnson administration. The Vietnam war created the perfect backdrop for the oppressor-oppressed philosophy found in Marxist ideology and in the aforementioned legislation. This far-Left poltical theory had been bubbling up, in America, thru the academy for 45 years, but couldn't get sufficient traction until the trauma's of the 60's provided a fertile staging ground.

As this political movement morphed into the 70's, inflation, legalized abortion, and the pill pushed women into the workforce and allowed them the freedom to choose an alternative career to marriage and its one up-one down model; a model still present in over 90% of the world today. Nixon, whose second administration was done in by his self-inflicted watergate travails was exposed, as was the war, by the proliferation of televised journalism. Presently, any political anomaly could be made into a morality play writ large. Frum highlights this and more.

Environmentalism, a handmaiden of the Leftist quest for world government on the order of a giant Sweden, was given a boost by predictions from rabble rousers such as Robert Ehrlich who Frum mentions in his "Apocaypse Now" section. For your added reading enjoyment check the "People's Almanac" circa 1975 and read the opening chapter on predictions by seer's such as Ehrlich. Don't miss it. Then refer to Frum's "God moves to Dallas" section. I suggest this because Frum's book is a backdrop for the implementation of the Leftist vision, given "legs" in the 70's, of eliminating private property with environmentalism as the wedge; for eliminating religion in favor of the state as the primary molder of family values; and for breaking up the family. Everything from welfare incentives for women to be single mothers, to government financed free abortion, to income tax incentives in favor of filing seperately versus filing as a married couple; to the Childrens defense league and its emphasis on a childs ability to sue his or her parents for being spanked, originated in the late 60's and was maintained along a continum thru the 70's. Left leaning social justice activists began to proliferate from our law schools and activist judges turned the rule of law, based on our constitution, on its head.

All of this is catalogued by Frum in the plethora of facts and anecdotes he uses to mark these transitions in his book about this pivotal decade. And, all of this occurring while Moore's Law was harolding the onset of the telecommunication revolution and the explosion of information that has followed. To see the leveling effects these technology driven changes wrought on society and the subsequent rise of living standards for all, read the "Myth's of the Rich and Poor", by Alm & Cox.

"How We Got Here" is an enlightening book which should be read as part of a grouping with "Bobo's in Paradise" by David Brooks, "Losing Ground" by C. Murray, "Twilight of Sovereignty" by Wriston, and "Divided they Fell" by R. Radosh. For a period piece book relating to an Icon of the Left, Fidel Castro, read "Against All Hope" by Valladares. This last book covers Valladare's 22 year stint in Cuban jails and serves as a bookend for both ends of the 70's. Those who would take issue with my Libertarian bent might do well to avail themselves of the "Dark side of the Left" by Richard Ellis.

Frum gives us a window into his view of both political sides with copious statistics and stories. Hell, on reflection maybe the 70's were analagous to a long, chaotic, guitar riff which cresendoed when Reagan was elected. And then the battle was truly joined. In the meanwhile, kudo's to Mr. frum for a job well done.

Frum's book covers areas not covered by the Bruce Shulman book, The Great Shift. Like the Shulman book, Frum points to Vietnam, in particular My Lai, as a milestone, when we discovered we weren't infallible, morally and otherwise. Was it any wonder that a high rate of AWOLers, deserters, and dishonourable discharges ran rampant during the 1970's? And like Shulman's book, Frum argues that it was the 1970's that made the America of today, not the 1960's.

The sobering disillusionment of the law is covered in "The Law Is Crazy" section. The crime rate skyrocketed with the influx of poor blacks from the South to the urban North. Crime was named as the biggest fear Americans faced in the 1970's. The thing was, people who became victims didn't bother reporting it because they figured the law wouldn't do anything about it. Frum lists pride, guilt, and laxity in policing as the diseases that bred disrespect for law in that decade. The Dirty Harry and Death Wish movies were clearly responses to the crisis on hand, and it wasn't surprising, now that I come to think of it, of the many cop shows that aired, such as Columbo, the Rockford Files, Kojak, CHIPS, Hawaii Five-O, and The Streets Of San Francisco, during that decade. It was a cry for law and order, to use Richard Nixon's slogan for 1968.

We got into a buying binge with the credit card from the 1970's, where despite being socked by the Great Depression, Americans figured as long as post-war prosperity continued, splurging was in. People could gain more material possessions and boost their status, and with inflation eliminating a little percentage of one's debt, why not spend now? "Self-denial was becoming downright irrational," according to Frum.

The Energy Crisis: ah yes, in 1973 and later in 1978. We became more aware of our dependence on foreign oil and the realization that we only had a finite amount of natural resources, and that we would have to cut back or find some efficient method of fuel.
It was also that time that the Arabs were seen as the new masters of the world, as they controlled the oil spigot. The story of the detainment and release in France of one of the masterminds of the Munich Olympics massacre testifies to that. And along with the Arabs, came hijacking incidents, especially Entebbe.

However, let's not forget liberation. There was also a sense of easing authoritarian institutions. In the case of law enforcement, it was bad, but in terms of religion, maybe that's what was needed to counterract the desertion of pews in both Catholic and Protestant churches. And sex? That was the most positive aspect of the 1970's right there. The mouthful of words POSSLQ (person of opposite sex sharing living quarters) has fortunately been changed to "significant other" of today. The taboo of living together out of wedlock was shattered. "Nice girls do" and "The day may come when we regard chastity as no more a virtue than malnutrition" were two quotes typifying that era. Too bad AIDS nipped that in the bud.

Frum's book is a needed companion to Bruce Shulman's work. If I had a time machine, the Me-Decade is one place high on my place to visit.

"~Although Frum is conservative and I'm a cynical, iconoclastic liberal, his book is witty, fascinating, most often correct and politically objective even when his political leanings surface. It's also a primer on how the best intentions can lead to the worst results, like the ethnic splintering that has replaced assimilation. His section on the ramifications of Phil Burton's revolt against the old power structure in Congress is one of those moments when I muse: "Why didn't I think of that?"~"~ Communists were harmless and well meaning.)